Nearly 40 percent of babies with a condition known as Simpson Golabi Behmel syndrome will die soon after birth, likely because of heart problems related to the disorder, which causes them to grow too quickly. If they do survive, additional challenges await, including skeletal defects, kidney problems, and increased risk of several types of cancers....More

English physician David Barker, M.D., Ph.D., noticed an interesting phenomenon when he studied babies born during the Dutch famine in the mid-1940s. He discovered that these babies — although small for their gestational age — had a much higher incidence of diabetes, heart disease and obesity when they grew up....More

Growing lung cells in the laboratory is an important tool for studying lung disease. It allows scientists to find out quickly how lung cells react to drugs and to better understand their biology. The epithelial cells that line the lung are first responders and when defective, such as in cystic fibrosis, result in serious disease....More

A novel partnership with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in undergraduate education reflects the CDI’s focus on the future of medicine. The project, under the direction of Kathryn Miller, Ph.D., professor of biology, brings five undergraduate students into CDI laboratories each summer to work alongside some of the world’s leading scientific researchers. These researchers are tackling structural birth defects, premature birth, diabetes, childhood cancer and a multitude of infectious diseases in children....More

Congenital heart disease appears in 1 in 100 births in the United States and is the most common cause of death in childhood. Children with this birth defect face multiple surgeries, a lifetime of medications and various preventive measures to keep their hearts working. But at this time, doctors have no way to permanently fix the hearts of such children....More

Nearly one in every eight U.S. babies is born too early – three weeks or more before the estimated due date. Such premature births are the leading cause of newborn deaths, and put babies at risk for chronic lung disease and other serious health problems, as well as lifelong learning and physical disabilities. While some causes of prematurity are known, more than half of women who deliver early have no known risks....More

The Children’s Discovery Institute (CDI) has announced a second wave of funding for research initiatives aimed at accelerating cures for childhood disease. Consistent with the CDI’s commitment to interdisciplinary research, the awards span academic disciplines from internal medicine and cell biology to genetics and pediatrics....More

Tigers are fierce and aggressive and no less so is the Children’s Discovery Institute in the pursuit of new knowledge for child health. Lead Investigator Thomas Morgan M.D., Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, is in Bangalore, India working with Sunita Maheshwari, M.D. Chief of Cardiology at Narayana Hrudayalaya....More

Chemistry meets biology in this innovative research program. Using synthetic particles invisible to the naked eye, researchers hope to better diagnose and treat childhood brain cancer, the third most common cancer of children. The particles are called nanostructures or nanoparticles because they are measured in nanometers, an almost unimaginably small unit, a billion times shorter than a yardstick....More

Chemistry meets biology in this innovative research program. Using synthetic particles invisible to the naked eye, researchers hope to better diagnose and treat childhood brain cancer, the third most common cancer of children. The particles are called nanostructures or nanoparticles because they are measured in nanometers, an almost unimaginably small unit -- a billion times shorter than a yardstick....More

Children’s Discovery Institute (CDI) has awarded $2 million in research grants to a broad spectrum of investigators across 10 unique departments in Washington University’s Schools of Arts and Sciences and Medicine. These are the first funding awards since the launch of the Institute in 2006....More